The City of St. Petersburg has “no current negotiations” with Duke Energy as the City’s franchise agreement is set to expire at midnight Friday, July 31, Duke spokesperson Ana Gibbs told the Catalyst.
“Duke Energy is exploring the implications the franchise agreement expiration will have on the city and our company,” Gibbs said when asked directly about impacts to the City and its residents if the current agreement is allowed to lapse. “Duke Energy will continue to deliver reliable service to its customers.”
St. Petersburg has taken a leisurely path exploring municipalization. A City Council committee first made a nonbinding request for a feasibility study of a municipal energy utility (MEU) in July 2025. Mayor Ken Welch acquiesced in August after a vote of the full council, but did not put out an RFP for the study until February 2026, in part due to pressure from municipalization activists.
The City Council awarded up to $590,000 to NewGen Strategies and Solutions to conduct the study last month. The status of the study has not been reported.
This stands in contrast to Clearwater, which also recently explored municipalization. They commissioned a study on replacing Duke almost 18 months ahead of the expiration of their agreement. Clearwater’s study, also by NewGen, suggested that millions in savings might result from municipalization; but there was considerable disquiet about up-front costs in the hundreds of millions, on top of an eminent domain battle likely to be the largest and longest in Florida’s history.
Beyond the challenges of municipalization was the property tax cut referendum placed on the November ballot by the Legislature; if passed, it would slash non-emergency municipal budgets to the bone. Ultimately, these pressures prompted Clearwater’s City Council to vote unanimously to renew with Duke.
In exchange, Duke committed to hundreds of thousands in initial investments in City infrastructure and green space, in addition to longer term investments that will exceed $1.75 million, according to the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) agreed by the Clearwater City Council. Duke will also continue paying millions in franchise fees into City coffers each year.
Clearwater’s own franchise agreement expired Dec. 7, 2025, and Duke has maintained service in the intervening period.
Franchise agreements, while technically non-exclusive, functionally give a utility like Duke control of power transmission in a municipality through control over use of the right-of-ways that power transmission infrastructure requires. In exchange for the franchise, Duke currently pays 6% of its area revenue to the City, or about $23 million dollars annually.
The City of St. Petersburg did not immediately respond to multiple calls and emails requesting comment on either the timeline for the MEU study awarded in June, or on the status of its negotiation with Duke Energy.
Duke Energy declined to elaborate on its last contact with the City.
Looming over the franchise renewal is the St. Petersburg mayoral primary election Aug. 18. Welch is locked in a dogfight with several challengers, including former Governor Charlie Crist, former Fire Chief Jim Larg, and City Councilmember Brandi Gabbard, an advocate of municipalization who was endorsed by “Dump Duke,” a pro-municipalization group supported by the Pinellas Democratic Socialists of America.
If no candidate obtains 50%, the top two will proceed to the election in the fall.
This content provided in partnership with StPeteCatalyst.com
